Oil closes near $102 on forecast for rising oil supplies

U.S. benchmark crude for November delivery fell 99 cents to close at $102.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Associated Press

10/11/2013

NEW YORK — Oil retreated to $102 a barrel Friday on a forecast for an increase in global crude supplies next year.

U.S. benchmark crude for November delivery fell 99 cents to close at $102.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. With three down days out of five, oil finished the week with a loss of $1.82 a barrel, or 1.8 percent.

Brent, the benchmark for international crudes, fell 52 cents to $111.28 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In its latest quarterly oil market report, the International Energy Agency predicted strong growth in non-OPEC supplies of crude oil.

The Paris-based IEA said that the United States would overtake Russia next year as the largest non-OPEC producer of liquid fuels, a category that includes other fuels on top of crude oil.

"Non-OPEC supply growth is now projected at an average 1.7 million barrels a day for 2014," the IEA said. "This would be the highest annual growth since the 1970s. The US's place in the driver's seat of growth is also a throwback to decades past."

The IEA also minimally increased its forecast for crude demand growth in 2014 by 90,000 barrels a day to 92.1 million barrels a day.

Traders also watched the latest turns in the debt debate in Washington. The price of oil has swung back and forth for days as lawmakers try to resolve an impasse that left the government partially closed and the markets worries about the U.S. defaulting on its debt for the first time.

There was no agreement as of Friday afternoon.

Failure to raise the U.S. borrowing limit could result in a default on government bond interest payments, undermining the credibility of assets prized as collateral by banks worldwide and crucial to the functioning of the financial system.